E-Malt.com News article: US, TX: Texas House allows small brewers to send tourists home with beer after brewery tours

The Texas House toasted small brewers Thursday by approving a bill that would allow them to send tourists home with beer following brewery tours, Houston Chronicle reported on April, 21.

The easy passage of House Bill 602 was the most significant milestone to date for a measure that state Rep. Jessica Farrar, D-Houston, has been trying to get through in some fashion for three sessions. Her bill now awaits committee assignment in the Senate, where it is being sponsored by state Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth.

Davis had introduced a similar bill that was left pending in the Business and Commerce Committee.

Brock Wagner, the Saint Arnold Brewing Co. founder who has pushed for the change as a way to help small brewers market their products more effectively, said his focus now turns to the upper chamber. While pleased with Thursday's vote, he was not ready to pop the top on a celebratory ale.

"I continue my state of cautious optimism," he said. "We're not there yet. It's certainly a big step in the right direction."

The bill would allow Texans to do something that is familiar to anyone who has toured a winery: take home some of the product afterward.

Under the compromises made to get HB 602 this far, breweries that manufacture no more than 75,000 barrels annually would be allowed to charge varying rates for their tours, depending on how much beer the ticketholder wanted to take home.

These tourists could leave with the equivalent of two six-packs — whether it be in cans, bottles or sealed jugs called growlers.

Currently, shipping breweries such as Saint Arnold are forbidden from selling their product directly to consumers. Under the state's highly regulated three-tier system, distributors control that part of the process.

The politically powerful Wholesale Beer Distributors of Texas has fought past efforts, but so far this session has publicly expressed support for HB 602.

However, that wholesalers lobby remains strongly opposed to HB 660, which would allow restaurants that make beer on site, known as brewpubs, to package some beer for off-premises sales through distributors.

That measure never made it out of the Licensing & Administrative Procedures Committee.


22 April, 2011